The feasibility of waste cooking oil as biodiesel in Hong Kong

Abstract

With an alarming increase in dumping of municipal solid waste to landfill in Hong Kong, of which food waste dominated, it is now the best opportunity to promote the use of biodiesel produced from waste cooking oils. Biodiesel has its main advantages as renewability, biodegradability, non-toxicity, non-greenhouse effect contributor and safety.

In this project, biodiesel was produced from waste cooking oils in laboratory. The feedstock used were home-used deep-frying canola oil, home-used pig oil, deep-fried oil obtained from a restaurant and fresh canola oil. Investigation and comparison were made between household waste cooking oil, restaurant cooking oil and fresh cooking oil in terms of quantity and quality by analysis on product density, cloud point, pour point and components by gas chromatography as well as mass spectrometry. Waste cooking

Waste cooking oils should be used for biodiesel production because of its low price and sustainability. In comparison of biodiesel yield and quality produced from household waste cooking oil with restaurant waste cooking oil, household waste cooking oil was a better feedstock. In terms of technology and huge amount of waste cooking oil generated in Hong Kong, biodiesel production in mass way is feasible. Future investigation will be needed for collection of waste cooking oil from household level such as implementation of pilot-scaled collection and production scheme in large estates.